Ammunition magazines are well known for use with automatic and semi-automatic firearms like rifles, shotguns, and handguns, among others. Configurations of such magazines are as numerous as the firearms with which they are used. Some are designed for use with a specific firearm while others are useable with a variety of firearms. Other design features include the size and number of ammunition cartridges that can be inserted into the magazine, components configured to feed the cartridges into the firearm, and components and configurations adapted to retain the magazine in a magazine receiver well of the firearm.
One of the most well-known firearms worldwide is the Kalashnikov or AK-47 and variants thereof originally developed by Mikhail Kalashnikov of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1947. The AK-47 employs an ammunition magazine that includes a forward and an aft tab for retention of the magazine in a receiver of the firearm. Insertion of the magazine into the AK-47 receiver requires placement of the front tab in contact with a mating flange in the receiver and then rotation of the magazine about the front tab to engage the aft tab with a pivoting spring-loaded clasp located at a rearward portion of the receiver well. Similarly, removal of the magazine from the AK-47 receiver requires a user to first release one hand from the firearm, actuate a release for the clasp, and then pull or allow gravity to move the magazine downward while rotating it about the forward tab. This rotation and clasp release can be slow, especially in combat situations, and places design constraints on firearms due to the space required to rotate the magazine into/out of the receiver.
It is estimated that over 100 million rifles based on the AK-47 design have been produced worldwide. The number of magazines manufactured for AK-type rifles thus far exceeds 100 million. It would be advantageous to enable use of magazines produced for AK-type rifles with other firearms without modification of the magazines. It would also be advantageous to enable removal of non-modified AK- and other dual-tab type magazines, e.g. magazines having a forward and an aft tab, from a receiver of a firearm and insertion of a replacement magazine therein without requiring rocking or rotation of the magazine relative to the firearm and without the user having to release the firearm.